Metro outsources IT divisions including METRO Systems Romania to India’s Wipro

Metro outsources IT divisions including METRO Systems Romania to India’s Wipro
/ Metro
By bne IntelliNews January 3, 2021

Global information technology, consulting and business process services company Wipro Limited has agreed to take over IT units from the German retailer Metro, namely Metronom in Germany and Metro Systems Romania.

The deal, one of the biggest under the new CEO Thierry Delaporte, will see more than 1,300 employees across Germany, Romania and India transferred to Wipro, the Bengaluru-based, NYSE-listed company announced in a statement.

Metro Systems Romania alone has about 800 employees, according to Profit.ro. As a result of the deal, Metro’s Romanian employees will transfer to Wipro, “gaining new opportunities to advance their careers, access innovation, work with leading digital technologies and adopt new ways of working that enable agility, speed and scale in engineering,” the company said. 

Meanwhile, within Metro Digital, Metro AG’s new IT unit, certain digital wholesale solutions, such as the M|Companion customer app, will be developed. 

“We are at a stage where we want to focus on the activities that are going to give us the strongest possible competitive advantage and to do that, we need to be confident in the digital infrastructure that underpins our growth. Partnering with Wipro allows us to simplify and streamline out IT landscape,” said Timo Salzseider, CIO of Metro AG and CEO of Metro Digital. 

The estimated deal value for the duration of the first five years is approximately $700mn, according to Wipro’s statement. With the intention to extend up to four additional years, the potential spend is up to $1bn. 

Under the arrangement, Wipro will deliver a complete technology, engineering and solutions transformation programme for Metro. The programme will encompass “cloud, data centre services, workplace and network services, along with application development and operations to provide an integrated, flexible and robust digital infrastructure to help drive Metro’s transformation agenda,” according to the statement. Wipro also plans to set up a digital innovation hub in Dusseldorf to support Metro and other clients in the region. 

Strategy consultancy EY-Parthenon supported the deal. Baker McKenzie advised Metro on the transaction.,

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